140-150 mn-year-old dinosaur footprints found in Beijing

Beijing, Jan 9 (IANS) Scientists, studying pre-historic life, have said that several hundred fossilised footprints found in a Beijing suburb are those of dinosaurs who lived about 140 to 150 million years ago.

According to Zhang Jianping, researcher at the China University of Geosciences, the footprints, discovered in a geological park in Yanqing county, are the first dinosaur traces found here.

They were left by dinosaurs that lived some 140 to 150 million years ago in the late Jurassic period, said Zhang.

A group of scientists from Zhang’s university first discovered the footprints in July 2011 in the Guihuamu Geological Park, known for its concentration of petrified ancient wood.

At one place where most of the footprints are concentrated, the paleontologists counted several hundred footprints as well as seven to eight lines formed by consecutive steps.

The discovery will benefit the study of China’s dinosaur categories at late Jurassic and early Cretaceous periods, Zhang said.

“It’s the first time China has found thyreophora, ornithopod, and sauropod footprints of that period, which provides us with more knowledge on how such species spread across China,” said Zhang.